Blog Post

Semiconductor Industry Bolsters Global Collaboration

Washington — The Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) reached an international collaboration agreement among global semiconductor industry leaders at the 19th annual meeting of the World Semiconductor Council (WSC) in Hangzhou, China last week. The leaders signed off on a series of proposals designed to strengthen the industry through greater cooperation.

The WSC is comprised of industry executives from China, Chinese Taipei, Europe, Japan, Korea and the United States. The group meets annually to address issues of concern to the global semiconductor industry.

“The World Semiconductor Council is a unique and effective forum for international collaboration, and its accomplishments on behalf of the global semiconductor industry are unrivaled by groups in other industries,” said Ajit Manocha, 2015 WSC chairman of the U.S. delegation and former CEO of GLOBALFOUNDRIES, in a statement. “The initiatives outlined in the 2015 Joint Statement will help enable more effective communication, cooperation, and competition in the global semiconductor industry. I’m especially encouraged the WSC has remained steadfast in its commitment to achieve duty-free treatment for next-generation semiconductors through expansion of the Information Technology Agreement, which would be the most commercially meaningful trade agreement for the global technology industry in nearly two decades.

The WSC said it “seeks expanded coverage in the Information Technology Agreement (ITA) for new and innovative semiconductor products, including multi-component semiconductors (MCOs). An expanded ITA – estimated to cover $1 trillion in global sales of tech products – would provide the first opportunity to include in the existing agreement newly developed products resulting from the dynamic technological developments in the information technology sector since 1996, when the ITA was originally concluded. MCOs are an important new growth market for the semiconductor industry.”

WSC expects the inclusion of MCOs in an expanded ITA to save the industry $150 to $300 million in global annual tariffs.